See all these people from the Kid Icarus stage at Nintendo World? They are your competition for a 3DS next month.

Wondering when you'll be able to walk into your local electronics shop and pre-order 3DS? January 20 seems to be the big date. Inside Games reports that Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera and Softmap will all begin taking pre-orders on that date.

Major retailers like these usually wait until they've received official notice from publishers before taking pre-orders. We can probably assume that Nintendo is beginning an official pre-order program on the 20th.

The availability of pre-orders should be good news for those who would rather not line up overnight for the February 26 launch. Nintendo has had varying stances on reserves for past product.

For online buyers, Amazon.co.jp is currently not taking pre-orders. However, it does have pages set up for the Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black colors.

Nintendo has said that it is readying 1.5 million 3DS for the Japanese market before the March 31 end of the fiscal year.